The Mask
by Red Haired Dame
Summary: Once upon a time there was a little girl in a mask. The little girl wondered what would happen if she ever took off her mask. The little girl was scared because she didn't want to be unknown. Her mask became her shield. OC.
1. Prologue

**The Mask**

**Prologue  
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><p><em>The little girl went by every day wearing a mask, a mask no one noticed she wore.<em>

_The little girl went every day, wondering if anyone would ever notice her mask._

_The little girl wondered what would happen if she ever took off her mask._

_Would anyone recognize her?_

_Would people not know her?_

_The little girl was scared because she didn't want to be unknown._

_So she left the mask on._

_And so it stayed._

_But that didn't stop the little girl from wondering if someone would ever see beyond her mask._

_She learned to live with her mask._

_Her mask became her shield._

_It blocked the hurt from coming in._

_But secretly she longed for someone to see behind the mask._

_Her friends never noticed._

_She didn't ask for romance._

_Romance was forbidden for the little girl._

_She wanted a friend._

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><p><strong>Author's Corner<strong>

**I'm posting three chapters right after this.**

**There's no real reason to say anything.**

**See you in three chapters.**

**Sincerely:**

**RHD  
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	2. Set Up For Disaster

**The Mask**

**Chapter One**

**Set Up For Disaster  
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><p>Why is it that when you have the most amazing dreams, you always get ripped out of it in the most unpleasant way? I was having a super amazing dream that I'd won the gold for the twenty twelve Olympics in Gymnastics. It was beautiful. But, then there was an earthquake right as I was about to have my gold medal placed around my neck. The entire stadium crumbled and fell into crevices that were cracking the ground apart.<p>

I woke up to my mother jumping up and down on my bed.

"WAKE UP HANABI-CHAN! IT'S YOUR FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!" she yelled joyfully as she jumped up and down, successfully launching me half out of my own bed and half onto the floor. The only thing keeping me from falling into a crumpled heap on the ground was the thermal blanket tangled around my legs.

"Mom! You're going to break my legs!" I complained, trying to wiggle out of the way of my mother's bouncing form. Honestly she was like a child, it was a good thing dad was so serious or she'd probably spend all her time behaving like a child. My mom bounced up one more time before landing on her knees on my bed. The movement caused my legs to slip from the web of blankets and caused my head to make contact with the floor.

"Sorry baby! I'm just so excited! I've been waiting to send you to a real school since you were five. But your silly father just had to convince me that home schooling would be better. Now look at you, your only friends are girls you compete against! How is that fair to my little baby girl? Huh? How?" my mother crouched over my fallen figure, not worried at all about a possible concussion that I may or may not have.

"Mom, I like my friends. Competition is healthy. Now get out of my room so that I can get dressed," I told her. My mom pouted at me and collapsed down on my bed, settling in to stay. I shoved myself up with my hands, putting my face level with my mom's. We had a stare down, to see who would have it their way. We had these sometimes, just because I was a kid and she was a kid like adult.

We sat there for five minutes, just staring at each other, until I heard my phone go off on the other side of my room. Probably my cousin Nanjirou telling me I had to get my ass to school. He was a third year this year, and he was responsible for making sure I get well adjusted with going to normal school for the first time.

I scowled at my mother, who wore a triumphant grin on her face as I pushed myself up off the ground.

"I win again Hanabi-chan!"

"And you complain that I compete with my friends…" I mumbled, picking up my phone. "'lo?"

"_HA-NA-BI! GET YOUR ASS TO SCHOOL NOW OR I'M GOING TO TELL OJII-SAN THAT YOU STILL NEED TO BE HOMESCHOOLED!" _That lovely sound invading my ears? That beautiful noise tearing my eardrums apart with every syllable? That would be my cousin Nanjirou reminding me that I had to be at school soon. He's so nice isn't he?

"Jirou-kun, I'm up, I'm getting ready, I'm stripping out of my pajamas as we speak," I said, cradling my phone between my cheek and shoulder. I was hopping around like a deranged rabbit trying to yank off my pajama pants.

"_That's a sexy image. Can you get here in fifteen? I'd like to show you around school before the other first years get here. You completely missed out on orientation because of that meet."_

"You mean that meet that I won? Yes, it was a hard decision, sit for a few hours listening to nerds talk or go do a competition for gymnastics," I said. I was walking around my room dressing as I talked with my cousin, pulling on my uniform over my tank top undershirt/"pajama" top.

"_Hanabi, you were the speaker."_

"Oh was I? I had NO idea. Oh well, who was the poor sucker who had to take my place?" I said. My mother had grown bored of my ignoring her to talk on the phone, so she left my room after about five minutes. Once she was gone, I placed my phone on speaker and set it on my desktop to make myself look presentable.

"_Some short kid named Sakuragi Naohito. I don't think he appreciated having to make up a speech on the spot."_

"Sounds like it was a fun time. My apologies for missing such a wonderful occasion," I said. I pulled my vibrant orange-brown hair back into a ponytail. It was normally down to my shoulder blades, but it had a semi permanent ponytail bump from me having to keep it back all the time. It was easier just to keep it back.

I wasn't very big on keeping appearance. I mean, just some mascara and some glitter body powder for gymnastics to make sure I didn't look butch. I don't want to be really girly, but I also don't want to look like a man.

"_You're almost done getting ready yeah? Get here soon okay. I'll be at the front entrance," _Nanjirou said. Then he hung up, no 'Bye' no chance to let me say anything. Nice cousin he is. So sweet, so awesome.

Yay me.

I finished getting ready and started my trek towards Kaibara High School. I had my backpack tossed over my shoulder in a devil-may-care fashion and my ponytail swinging behind me.

I had no idea how I managed to convince my dad to let me go to high school, especially with the Olympics looming over my head. I was going, I'm on the Japan National team, and I would claim the gold for my country of origin. Don't let the orange hair fool you, my mom's English but was raised in Japan. She's got like some serious gingerness going on. I got my dad's natural dark brown hair mixed with gingerific hair color.

I continued my walk to school, finding it quickly. I'd only been once to get myself registered, but I had a pretty good sense of direction. It was still pretty early, not many people were there so it was pretty easy to spot my cousin standing in front of the school, talking to some dude with silvery hair.

Now, some cousins might do the totally obnoxious thing and just stand there waving their arms like a maniac and yelling their cousins family nicknames. Not me, I'm cool. Most of the time. I calmly walked over to my cousin, calling his name softly as I approached.

"Nanjirou-kun." My dark haired cousin looked up from his conversation and saw me. His face was blank and he did nothing to acknowledge my presence other than look at me. He looked down at his cell phone and then finally addressed me.

"You're on time for once," he said. I pursed my lips and stared at him. Not saying a word. "This is Sohma Yuki-kun, he's a second year class representative." I looked to my cousin's silver-haired companion. He looked kind of cute, a bit too girly though…

"Hey, I'm Itsue Hanabi, Nanjirou's cousin," I said, holding out my hand. I didn't do the whole bowing thing, kind of impersonal. Besides, with this backpack weighing me down, I'd fall over. Sohma looked a bit taken aback by the hand held in front of him, but shook it anyway,

"Sohma Yuki, it's a pleasure to meet you Itsue-san," Sohma said once we dropped our hands.

"You can call me Hanabi. Jirou-kun, you're showing me around the school yeah?" I asked, turning my attention back towards my cousin. Nanjirou nodded.

"Yeah, Yuki-kun, come find me if you need help. I have to show Hanabi around and then I'll be at my post," Nanjirou said. Sohma nodded once.

Showing me around the school didn't take long, I've known Nanjirou for my whole life so he knew about my good memory. I'm good with directions, Mathematics, and Science, everything else? Languages, history, art? Not good at any of it. If I could just go to a school for athletics and sciences I would be set. But, there are no such schools, so I'm shit outta luck.

Nanjirou was leading me back to the first year hallway, he was leading me past this third year dude yelling at some other students. Now, I was minding my own business, not doing or saying or wearing anything offensive. But all the sudden, I get a hand pointed in my face.

"YOU! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS? IS THERE SOME SORT OF HAIR REVOLUTION GOING ON?"

I blinked once, twice, three times. Before connecting the pointed finger in my face to a hand, an arm, and eventually the third year who'd been yelling at the other students earlier.

"Um… what?" I asked, confusion spreading itself easily over my face. What the heck did I do?

"YOUR HAIR! THAT COLOR IS SURELY NOT NATURAL!" he yelled, thrusting the finger once more into my face. I stepped back, startled by the sudden finger motions. Nanjirou placed a hand on my shoulder to steady me.

"Takei-kun, I assure you, this is my cousin's natural hair color," Nanjirou said.

"ITSUE NANJIROU-KUN! YOUR COUSIN IS JAPANESE LIKE YOURSELF, SO SHE SHOULD HAVE THE JAPANESE COLORING!"

"Dude, I'm half English. My mum's a red head. I got half of her coloring and completely Japanese looks. Do I need to get a Mendel chart to plot this out for you?"

"DO YOU HAVE PROOF OF THIS SUPPOSED HALF ENGLISH BLOODLINE?" yelled the guy once more.

"Calm down, take a chill pill. I have a photo if that suits your highness's needs. Or, you know, you could go ask the administrative office since that would be less problematic for me. Now if you don't mind, I want to find my class, 'kay darling?" I said. I kept my face neutral, putting on the same fake smile as I do when I compete, and patted his cheek before walking away from him.

"Hanabi that is no way to treat the President!"

"He can't treat me like that. I don't take bullshit- excuse me-" I stopped speaking to my cousin to address the large group that appeared to be blocking the hallway.

"ITSUE HANABI-SAN OF CLASS ONE-C-" I turned to look back at the yelly screamy man, I was about to walk past a guy with cool looking two toned hair too.

"Is that what class I'm in? Thank you! Now I won't have to awkwardly walk to each class and ask the teacher if I'm in their class! This seems to be the smartest thing I've seen you do! Now if you'll excuse me," I said, smiling fakely once more. I really was a pro at it, gotta appear warm and approachable for the judges… and the sponsors.

"I WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS LEVEL OF DISRESPECT!"

"Gotta give it so that you can receive it," I countered, fully turning around. The "president" sputtered at that, not knowing what to say. But then quickly turned to the cool hair colored dude beside me.

"YOU! SOHMA HATSUHARU-SAN! IT SEEMS YOU HAVE A KINDRED SPIRIT FOR CLAIMING NATURAL HAIR COLOR AND DISRESPECT TO YOUR OFFICIALS!"

"She gave you an explanation, you just don't like being wrong," the boy said. I looked at him, he seemed really cool. I didn't really notice guys often, not supposed to, but he was insanely cute. All punk and whatnot. I think I like school. I turned back to the president guy and addressed him myself.

"And the attitude was for you yelling at me. Here's a tip for you Chief, girls don't like guys who yell. Now, once again, if you'll excuse me," I said, turning around on my heel.

You know, I tried so hard to be unlike my teammates, to be able to go to a normal school, to stop being home schooled, looks like I'll be back with them after a while…

There was a comment made by one of the others, and I think Nanjirou may have said something to the president but I didn't care. The president didn't come after me again, he went into another spiel on another student, from that same group I think. I'd just reached class 1-c when I heard a commotion that WASN'T the president. I looked over, paused at the door, to see the two toned hair boy throttling the president, shaking him and whatnot. I blinked, and smiled slightly. Well, that was one way to get your point across. I went into the classroom before anything else happened.

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><p>He was in my class.<p>

The two toned hair guy I mean.

He, along with what I believed to be a young boy, walked into the class right as the bell rang for class. The both sat together on the opposite side of the class. I only know because I was in the last seat of the first row, according to the alphabetical seating chart that had been placed on a dangling piece of paper right inside. I could see everything in the class, watched everyone enter.

I kind of liked being the observer for once, instead of being the observed.

We didn't do much that day, teacher went around with introductions. Made us sign a list with our contact information, and made us each stand up and say something interesting about ourselves. I said I liked gymnastics.

I learned that two toned hair dude's name was Hatsuharu Sohma, and that his hair was natural. He was a weird guy… but it was kind of interesting to me…

I wonder how dad and coach Kazu would react if I told them that I may have my first crush on a boy…

And that was my very first day of school. It was nice, if a little aggravating because of busybody presidents. But all in all, I think I'm gonna like it here.

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><p><strong>Author's Corner<strong>

**Okay, so... yeah. I think, other than the prologue, this is my shortest chapter yet.**

**And I'm judging from what I've already written.**

**Not what I've posted.**

**The next two chapters will be longer because I don't believe in a short chapter.**

**See you in two chapters.**

**Sincerely,**

**RHD.  
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	3. Meeting for the First Time

**The Mask**

**Chapter Two**

**Meeting for the First Time  
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><p>My second day of school was when the work really started. I was fine with math and sciences, but when it came time for History? Ugh, kill. Me. Now.<p>

It was lunch time now, and the teacher promised that English and Japanese would be right after and that our P.E. would be last of the day. That was one thing for me to look forward to…

I had already eaten my celery sticks and broccoli stalks (gotta eat healthy and light for lunch!) so I was conversing with my Gymnastics coach on my cell phone. Currently, he was chewing me out for being at school and not being able to practice as much as the other girls.

"_Really Hanabi, you're going to fall behind the other girls on the team, even behind the girls training under your father!" _he said. Kazu sounded exasperated, like he was tired. I wonder if Miyuki and Sumi were teasing him again…

"Kazu I told you, I'll practice more when I get there. And I'll stay late too. And I've got a P.E. class here so I can get some extra exercise," I said. I was outside the school, leaning against the wall away from presidents and school employees. The wind was blowing my skirt around my legs, making me hold it down to keep me from flashing everybody.

"_I'm just disappointed. You sure you want to be in school? Will they even allow us to pull you out to go to meets?"_

"They let me skip Orientation for a meet. And according to my cousin I was supposed to be the first year representative.-"

"_Bi-chan! You're the class rep? That's amazing!" _a shrill voice yelled into my ear. I winced at the sound of Miyuki's high pitchy voice flooding my delicate eardrums. Miyuki was a "middle schooler" on the team, second youngest only to her twin sister Sayuki.

"Miyuki-chan, I would like to keep my hearing please," I teased, a warm smile creeping it's way onto my face. I loved my team, they were loud, crazy, and the fiercest competitors in Japan. She listened to her teammates fervent apologies and continued my conversation. We save the serious discussions for the phone, because when I was at the gym it was time to train. Not converse why I'm going to school.

"All right all right, I gotta go now. My lunch period is almost over. Love you guys, I'll see you in a couple of hours," I said. I clicked my phone off after they told me their good byes, right as the bell rang.

I stretched my arms up, reaching towards the sky with one, and holding onto it with the other. Time for me to epically fail in school.

I headed into the school building, and almost crashed into another person had I not stepped back at the last moment. It was a brunette girl, older, probab;y a second year. On either side of her was a tall blonde girl and a dark haired goth (probably) girl. They looked to be heading towards P.E. or the changing room.

"I'm sorry, I should have been watching where I was going," I said, a sheepish look on my face. My arms fell to my sides as I stepped back even more, granting them passage because of their seniority.

"No, it's entirely my fault, I should have known people would have been coming in from outside after lunch," the brunette girl said, bowing repetitively.

"Tohru come on, we're swimming today," the blonde said, walking past us all.

"Ah! Right, it was a pleasure to meet you… um…"

"Itsue Hanabi," I said, smiling lightly.

"Hanabi-san, I'm Honda Tohru. I'm sorry for nearly running into you," the brunette said, bowing once more.

"Honda-senpai, it was my fault. Ah, excuse me, I need to get to class before the Sensei thinks I'm skipping," I explained. This caused the brunette to freak out oddly enough.

"THAT WOULD BE HORRIBLE! Please, pardon us!" she said, hurrying out of the doorway to join her blonde friend. The goth girl following behind closely, regarding me with only a blank gaze.

"It was nice to meet you, senpai!" I said, smiling lightly. I didn't wait for them to respond, as soon as the doorway was clear I booked it to my classroom. Class had just settled down to begin the lesson when I slid into class.

It was quite awkward because all the students were staring at me from their seats when I slid into the doorway. Now, people who hadn't been accustomed to being stared at might've blushed or done something embarrassing. But I, being under the spotlight so many times, merely smiled and walked to my seat with an air of confidence.

"Okayyy. Right, so students mine, we're going to do a little project before diving into the wonderful world known as English," the teacher said standing at the head of the class with an excited grin on his face. He was young, probably barely had his teaching license.

"Eh? What kind of project Seichan?" a student in the middle asked, raising his hand while asking the question. The teacher stared blankly at the student, losing his smile.

"Watashi-kun, it's not polite to call your sensei by nicknames," he said. The class laughed, discluding myself and few serious others.

"So what's the project Seichan?" persisted this 'Watashi' person. The sensei rolled his eyes and stood up straight.

"We're going to have a project on culture. I'm setting you into pairs and each pair will choose a culture of a foreign land a do a presentation on in right before summer vacation. That's a lot of time, so I expect you to have a great presentation. Wow me kids," Seichan said. The class grew silent, and I was among the speechless.

A project, I'd never done a project before. Home schooling was tough, but we only crammed in knowledge and took tests to pass. It was all done in two hours so that there would be a maximum amount of time for Gymnastics.

Now it was kind of the opposite, she had to cram as much training in as possible in her now limited time. It was her own damn fault for wanting to go to normal school…

"Seichaaaan," a girl up front whined. Seichan wagged a finger shamefully.

"Ah, ah, ah, no whining. Pairings will be random, so this will also be a chance for new friendships to be made," Seichan said, his grin returning to his face. I arched an eyebrow. I hoped this wouldn't cut into my training time, because I needed to step up my game if I wanted to get the gold for Japan.

Seichan walked around the classroom, placing little slips of paper on each of the desks. "On each slip of paper is a number. The numbers range from one to thirteen, your partner is going to have the same number as you do. When I say so, you may go find your partner," Seichan said.

He walked down my aisle last, seeing as I was in the way back he only gave me one slip of paper left. Seichan had just placed it on my desk when he said that we could go find our partners. I stared at the paper sitting at the corner of my desk, upside down. I reached out, placed my hand over it, and dragged the slip over to me.

I slipped my hands, and the slip of paper, into my lap. I didn't know who would be my partner, hopefully no one who would try to make me do everything.

I turner the paper over and stared at it.

I blinked once. Looked up at Seichan, who was sitting on top of his desk grinning, and looked back down. Then I looked back up again and raised my hand.

"Seichan, you misnumbered me," I said. Seichan arched a black eyebrow, still smiling.

"Is misnumbered a word?" he asked.

"I don't think so, but it fits the situation," I said, explaining even though he had changed the subject on me.

"Ah, well go on, how did I misnumber you Itsue-chan?"

"You said on the slips of paper you'd numbered from one to thirteen. My number is fourteen," I said. I had the attention of the entire class, everyone had already paired off. In my peripheral, I could see Hatsuharu sitting by his blonde cousin, apparently paired together.

"Ahhh, yes. I gave you that number on purpose," Seichan said cheerfully. I waited for him to explain, but he didn't. Just sitting there on his desk, smiling. As the first teacher I've had other than my mom, he wasn't coming off as any better.

"Well," I prompted.

"Well what?"

"Why do I have the number fourteen?" I asked, growing impatient. He was just like my mom. I didn't like it. One person with my mom's personality was more than enough.

**(Side note: Just so you know, I don't hate my mother. I love her a lot actually, but someone needs to be the adult when Dad is at work and it shouldn't be the teenage daughter.)**

"Ah, right. Well since you applied late to this school, they didn't know where to place you. So they stuck you in here, making the class uneven. I gave you the number fourteen and you're going to join in group seven. Why? Because two sevens make fourteen!" Seichan explained. He looked so proud to have come up with that.

I stared at him.

Seichan stared back.

The class stared at the both of us.

"You couldn't have just given me a random number of one of the groups?" I asked. Seichan shook his head.

"Nope, you still would have asked, I figured I'd have fun with it," he said. The entire class was staring at him now, wondering what exactly they'd gotten themselves into when they'd been placed in this class.

"Right…" I said slowly.

"Hey! Come over here, we're number seven!" yelled the blonde Sohma from by the windows. It took a lot for me to not let my blush show across my face. If the blonde one was seven, then that meant that Hatsuharu was a seven also. I gathered my books and crossed the classroom, the other students going back to their partner discussions. Well, the males at least, the females were all looking at me in jealousy it seemed. Why? Were they really that special?

The blonde grinned as I approached the "group".

"Hi! I'm Sohma Momiji! This is my cousin Sohma Hatsuharu," he said. Hatsuharu nodded his head, his face forever neutral. I smiled politely.

"Nice to meet you both, I'm Itsue Hanabi," I said. I shuffled my books into one hand and held the other out to them.

Momiji stared at my hand, confused, before his cousin spoke up.

"She wants you to shake it Momiji," Hatsuharu said. He himself leaned forward and took my hand with his larger hand.

Now, as a gymnast, my hands need to be relatively strong. They weren't small and dainty, they were normal hands. Not dainty, not small, regular sized hands with long fingers. But his hand overwhelmed mine so easily. I shook his hand quickly and we both pulled back.

Okay, so this might have only been me, but I definitely felt something like an electric shock. And not one of those static shocks you get from wearing socks while walking across a carpet and then touching the doorknob.

"Oh I get it!" Momiji said. He reached out and grabbed my hand. He actually pulled me forward in the force he used to pump our hands up and down repetitively. I nearly dropped my books it was so surprising.

Unlike his cousin, Momiji's hands were barely bigger than mine. They were so graceful though, musician's hands. I smiled a little after he let go, but then stumbled a little because my body was still confused after being shaken like that.

"All right class, settle down now, I'm going to give you your countries and cultures for your project," Seichan said. I looked around to find an extra chair, but there were none, and since I didn't want to be an odd duck standing by herself I just made a seat out of the windowsill.

"Now that we're all in our _ahem_ seats, I'll announce your countries for your groups. Group one, the United States. Group two, China. Group three, Russia. Group four, Mexico. Group five, France. Group six, Egypt. Group seven, England. Group eight, Germany. Group nine, Brazil. Group ten, India. Group eleven, Ireland. Group twelve, Australia. You have thirty minutes to plan out how you're going to get together before diving into the wonderful world of English," Seichan said. The class all started murmuring together at once.

England, how ironic. I could get all I needed from my grandparents, they still lived in England and were only a phone call away.

"Aw, I wanted Germany," Momiji said, laying across the table in front of him.

I sat in the windowsill, my legs dangling and swinging softly, I wondered when I could get time to get together, or even call my grandparents. "Um, I'm half English, I could call my grandparents and learn something," I offered. Both Sohma's looked over at me.

"Hanabi-chan, we have something in common!" Momiji said happily. I blinked once, then furrowed my brow.

"Oh really? What?" I asked. He grinned widely.

"Ja, ja, I'm half European too! Mein mutti is German," Momiji said. I laughed, what a coincidence.

"Wow Momiji-kun. Okay, so I can get information from my family, when should we meet for the project? I have practice a lot but I'm free on Sundays and Wednesday evenings," I said, brushing my bangs behind my ear.

"Practice?" Momiji asked. It seemed to me that Momiji was the more talkative of the two cousins, I wondered if Hatsuharu would ever speak without being necessary.

"I'm a gymnast for the Japan National team," I said, smiling. I like talking about being a gymnast, it was the one thing that made me happy in this world, the one thing I could do regardless of where I was or who I was with.

"Ah! That's so cool!" Momiji exclaimed, drawing the attention of nearby groups. I giggled. He was so adorable and cute, like a little kid.

"Thank you, it's really fun. So are Sundays and Wednesday afternoons good?" I asked.

"It's fine with me, Haru what about you?" he asked, turning to the white haired Sohma. I looked at him as well, tapping into my gymnast persona to keep the blush off my face.

"Sounds good," he said. Hatsuharu had such a nice voice, it was deep and rough and cool, it kind of made my insides melt.

"Awesome, do you want to study at you guys' house or mine? Or we could go to the library if that sounds better," I asked. I felt a little hyper now, I wanted to bring my legs up to sit criss cross, but my skirt was so short and I really didn't want to flash my undies for the class to see.

"We could go anywhere. We can go to the library tomorrow and alternate houses on Sunday," Momiji offered.

"That sounds good, is that okay with you Hatsuharu-kun?" I asked, turning to him. His dark grey eyes met my brown ones, and I swear I thought I would die they were so gorgeous! He nodded once. I smiled, happy enough to be acknowledged by such a gorgeous person.

Okay, I'm acting like a total fan girl, thank god he's not a mind reader or anything because that would be so embarrassing.

We continued talking a bit, well me and Momiji did anyway, but soon Seichan told us all to go back to our desks so that we could start our English lesson.

I'm not going to put you through the torture of how much I suck at school, so I'm just going to skip to the end of school.

"All right that's it for today. Get changed and you can go home," the P.E. sensei said. I stopped doing my jumping jacks, half falling over. I wasn't used to doing all this. Yes, I'm a gymnast. I run, stretch, do pull ups. But Jumping jacks? Pure hell. It's so repetitive, my arms aren't used to be waved back and forth, back and forth, and my crotch was killing me.

What?

I can say crotch, it's not a crime. I go around most of the time in a skin tight body suit, modesty I know nothing about. Well, about my body at least.

"Hanabi-san, you did well today," a female class mate of mine, Yuzu, said as we walked to the changing room. I blushed slightly, and laughed.

"Thanks, but I'm not that good at that repetitive stuff. It kills my shoulders," I said, rubbing my left shoulder.

"Well you couldn't tell by looking at you. You're totally in shape! As well you should be," she said, smiling. I stopped, frowning.

"What do you mean?" I asked, walking again to catch up to Yuzu.

"You're on the Japan National Gymnastics team right? I saw a picture of you in a magazine yesterday. You won a meet on Sunday," she said. I was in a magazine? Why hadn't anyone told me?

"What magazine?" I asked, pulling open the doors to the changing room.

"Women's Sports. My mom subscribes so I read it when I'm bored. I recognized you," she said, smiling over at me. I was stunned. I'd been recognized, from a magazine! That's never happened before, it was so, so, so- Exciting! I grinned at Yuzu, glad for her being there now. I might never have known that I was in a magazine if not for her.

I was in a hurry to get to practice today, so I changed into my leo and some shorts, stuffing my uniform into my bag along with my gym uniform. As I ran out of the school, I passed the two Sohma in my class, Hatsuharu and Momiji. I really wanted to stop and talk to them, but I have gymnastics, and Kazu would definitely kill me if I was late because of _guys._

So I ran on, smiling to myself.

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><p><strong>Author's Corner<strong>

**See, longer.**

**One more chapter after this.**

**Then you have to wait for the next one.**

**See you next chapter.**

**Sincerely,**

**RHD  
><strong>


	4. We Make a Connection

**The Mask**

**Chapter Three**

**We Make a Connection  
><strong>

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><p>"So… basically, you're crushing big time on this classmate of yours who hardly says a word," Kyouko said, later that evening. We were in a restaurant after training, late night dinner for the girls. Kazu had gone home, a stickler for his own rules.<p>

I blushed into my cheese pizza. This was embarrassing, these girls were like my sisters but they had never experienced what I was experiencing. School, a crush on a classmate, it was so confusing.

"Shush. He's sooo cute. And when he does talk," I paused to sigh, "it's like, boom, butterflies. And when we shook hands there was electricity," I said. The five girls around me, the girls who were the closest things I had to sisters, all looked at each other before grins broke out on their faces.

"Ooooh sounds like Bi-chan is crushing hard and fast!" Miyuki said, a devious grin on her face. I could tell it was Miyuki, because her Pizza was covered in spinach. Miyuki only ate green foods. Sayuki only ate things that were orange or yellow, so her pizza was covered in pineapple. Other than that the twins were utterly identical in every possible way… physically. Both had dark black hair pulled back into tight ponytails, dark brown eyes, a mole high on their left cheek, and both were crazy good at the floor routines.

"Bi-chan can crush all she wants but she can't touch unless she wants the boot," Sumi said through her pizza crust. She was a rough girl, she and Kyouko were from a rough part of town, Sumi was a former yankee, and Kyouko came from a shelter.

Sumi's hair was bleached and her eyebrows plucked thin, a tattoo decorated her ribs which was thankfully always covered by her leotard around the officials, and piercings decorated her ears, her routines were fluid, beautiful, and deadly.

Kyouko didn't wear her roughness on her sleeve, she wore it in her routines, all barbs and spikes, telling stories in each of her routines. Telling them, I'm here and I will not go down that easily. Her hair was black and short, her eyes a light brown, her body long and lithe. She looked like a freakin elf.

"I won't, I know where the boundaries are," I reassured, pointing my crust around at each of them.

"As long as you make sure you don't overstep those boundaries Hanabi," Kyouko said.

"It's healthy to have a crush. Makes us gymnasts seem almost like normal girls," Aiko said, stoic as ever. She was the team captain, and for good reason. She was always ready for business, but wasn't above doing things with the team. She also always knew when was a time to get the officials, and when things should just be resolved between teammates.

We all stilled. She did not…

"Ai-chan, did you just…" Miyuki said.

"I think she did," Sayuki agreed.

"Aiko-chan, you just made a joke," I said. Aiko said nothing, just continued to eat her cheese pizza. Like me, she didn't have anything on hers other than cheese. She looked so beautiful, her hair long and curly, a brilliant shade of black, her eyes bright and hazel, tall, thin, and graceful as a swan. If Kyouko was an elf, Aiko was the wind itself.

"See, Ai-chan approves a crush, just remember. We're the best Japan has to offer, we can't let something stupid like boys distract us from that," Sumi said, winking at me. I grinned and stuffed my face with my piece of pizza.

We laughed the entire night, at least until ten, and ended the night splitting ways at the gym. My house was down the street from there and it was easier to keep our bags there.

After my teammates had left, I stayed behind, making sure I was alone before beginning my solitary practice.

I practice for hours, rotating beam, floor, and bars, I kept at it until past midnight. Not intentionally though, I forgot to keep checking the time. I get so wrapped up in my gymnastics, I have my music blaring and I just get so focused. I lose all sense of the outside world, just my own little bubble of gymnastics.

BREAK

The next day, I was dead to the world. I thought I was going to oversleep, so I set my alarm clock extra early so that I could wake up.

Yeah, my alarm clock worked extra well and I got up at five, thinking it was seven, and basically ran to school only to be the first one there.

And I do mean first. I had to wait on someone to come and unlock the door.

So as I waited, I sat against the wall, head tilted back as I tried to get some sleep.

I only looked up when I heard someone approaching, thinking it was a teacher. Instead of having to get up and go to the classroom to sleep in my desk, I was pleasantly surprised to find Hatsuharu staring down at me.

"Hey," he said.

"Hi," I said back, my voice raspy from both sleep and the fact that I was afraid that my voice would crack if I spoke any louder.

"Why are you here so early?" Hatsuharu asked, moving to sit down as well. He didn't sit exactly next to me, it was about three feet away.

"Short version, alarm clocks suck. You?" I asked back.

"Felt like it."

"That is a wonderful reason," I said in a mock serious tone. When he didn't respond back, I began to panic a bit.

I was just a total freak, that was a lame thing to say, I shouldn't have said anything.

"It helps to stretch before doing the exercises. That way your shoulders won't be sore after," Hatsuharu said suddenly. My head snapped up to look at him, eyebrows raised.

"What?" I asked dumbly.

"Yesterday, as you walked to the changing rooms, you were rubbing your shoulders like they were hurting you. Doing some stretches before should help," he explained. He didn't look at me, only stared ahead. My heart soared, he had thought about me, given me advice on how to not be in pain. I tried really hard not to blush.

"Oh, well, it's not that it was hurting, it was just a bit sore because I'm not really used to doing things repetitively, at least not like that. But thank you, really. It's nice of you to think of me," I said, pushing my bangs back out of my face. My hair was pulled back again, as it always was, but I was suddenly self-conscious about it.

Hatsuharu only shrugged, and we sat there. After a while, a teacher came and unlocked the door for us, but we didn't move. I didn't want to, both for the fact that I was so tired and for the fact that I was sitting with Sohma Hatsuharu! Hatsuharu didn't make a move to get up, and neither did I.

It was close to eight when we finally moved, and that was because Momiji came bounding up towards us with too much energy for anyone to exert in the morning.

"Guten Morgen!" he yelled to us. I smiled up at him.

"Hi Momiji-kun," I said. I pushed myself to a standing position, pulling my backpack onto my shoulders.

"Hanabi-chan! Today you have to eat lunch with us! I want you to meet my friend Tohru!" Momiji said grabbing onto my hand. I laughed, he was so energetic.

"I'd be happy to meet your friend Momiji-kun," I told him. Momiji seemed to shine at my words and then began to pull me forward. My tired body simply let him, though my tired mind was screaming for me to stop and just go to sleep on the pavement. Hatsuharu followed behind us as Momiji animatedly talked to me about random topics.

Class that day was murder, History I sort of blanked on, I barely concentrated on Science and Math, and by the time lunch rolled around, I'd forgotten what the teacher's name was. I was curled up on my desk, prepared to sleep the entire lunch away, when a persistent prod kept poking my left wrist.

I thought about ignoring it, but then an adorable voice spoke up.

"Hanabi-chan, are you okay?" Momiji's voice said right next to my ear. The tone was so cute, like a child, I had to look up.

I sat up, and stretched my arms high as I tried to stretch the tiredness away.

"I'm okay, just a bit tired," I said, yawning. My eyes clenched themselves shut in the yawn, drawing little pricks of tears to the corners of my eyes.

"Do you still want to meet Tohru?" he asked. I dropped my arms and opened my eyes, my brown eyes meeting his, and smiled sleepily.

"Of course I do Momiji. Let me get my lunch and we can go," I said. Momiji grinned at me and I smiled back. I couldn't help but notice that Hatsuharu was absent and I wondered if maybe he and his cousin weren't as close as I believed.

"Haru went on ahead, don't worry," Momiji said, walking with me to my locker. My steps faltered slightly, as did my heart rate. What did he just say?

"Eh?" I asked, surprised. What was he talking about? Momiji only looked back at me and smiled before pressing a finger to his lips.

"I won't tell," Momiji whispered conspiratorially. My eyes widened for a split second. Surely he couldn't mean my crush on Hatsuharu could he? It was just a small meaningless crush, I couldn't do anything about it!

I stayed silent, and hastened my steps towards my locker.

Once there, I opened my backpack and took out my lunch and my cell phone. I needed to send a quick text to Kazu saying I wouldn't be able to call today and that I'd see them after school.

"Oh! Hanabi-chan, we should exchange numbers!" Momiji said excitedly upon seeing my phone. He pulled his out of the pockets of his shorts, which by the way were about as short as some of my running shorts.

"We definitely should Momiji-kun, don't give me your number yet, I have to send a text first," I said, smiling at Momiji. My eyes were closed, I did that sometimes when I smiled, so I didn't see Momiji take a picture of me until after I heard the click and I opened my eyes back up.

Momiji grinned mischievously at me as I playfully pouted.

"Momiji-kun," I said warningly.

"But you looked so cute Hanabi-chan," he said. I rolled my eyes, smiling despite myself, and sent a text to my friends. We exchanged numbers, after Momiji stole my phone to take a photo of himself, and went off to lunch.

I should have pieced it together, I really should have.

"Hanabi-chan, meet my friend Honda Tohru," Momiji said to me upon reaching the lunch spot. I blinked a bit, having lost my focus for a second, before my eyes zeroed in on the girl in question.

"Eh, Honda-senpai?" I said, confused. No way; I, for real, met a friend of theirs? Hatsuharu was sitting near a guy I recognized as Sohma Yuki. Tohru was seated with her two friends from yesterday and there was another guy there too with really cool looking orange hair.

Tohru pieced together where she'd met me as well and started behaving all frantic like.

"OH! Itsue-san! I didn't realize you and Momiji-kun were friends! That's so wonderful!" she said. She smiled so brightly, and she was so polite, I almost thought she was being sarcastic.

"We're doing a class project together with Hatsuharu-kun," I told her. Momiji nodded in agreement as he went to claim a seat between Tohru and Yuki. I sat down in a open spot by the Goth girl, smiling at her slightly.

"Hi," I greeted.

"Hello…" she responded.

"Itsue-san-" Tohru started, before I cut her off.

"You can call me Hanabi, Honda-senpai," I said quickly. I hated being called by my family name, it was a pet peeve. Everyone needed to call me Hanabi or I'd seriously start to dislike that person. I smiled to show that I was sorry for interrupting her.

"Your waves are very conflicted," the goth girl beside me said, before Tohru had the chance to speak again. When I turned to look at her, she met my gaze with a blank one of her own.

"What nonsense are you spouting now?" Orange top sniped.

"At first, your waves seemed very calm, but beneath there are many different layers… The strongest and most vibrant being a vicious one," she said. I felt a presence in my head, pressing down threateningly on me. What was she doing? She was causing this? Instead of freaking out, I smiled.

"I should hope so. Viciousness is something I can't afford not to have," I laughed. This earned me stares from each of them, so I elaborated. "I'm a gymnast, I compete frequently. I can't be all buddy buddy with the other competitors, if I do, I'll feel bad about crushing them into dust in front of the judges." I said all of this smiling, not allowing them to see my inner embarrassment.

"Right… So gymnast, that's the thing where you move around to music in front of an audience right?" the blonde said. She sat on the other side of the goth, almost next to Hatsuharu.

I pondered this. "Um, I don't know. We have music to go to, but there are lots of things where you could move around to music in front of an audience. Pop star, dancer, porn star-" at the last comment, the orange haired guy and the blonde girl started freaking out. I'm glad I wasn't opposite from orangey, because he had spit his water out all over Hatsuharu.

"THAT'S DISGUSTING!" he yelled, glaring at me.

"WHO THINKS OF SHIT LIKE THAT?" the girl yelled. I kept my face blank as my insides started squirming. Dammit, I'd said something stupid again.

"I was just being honest…" I said, trying not to bite my lip.

"Well don't! Keep that kind of shit to yourself," Orange hair said. I was beginning to apologize when something surprising happened.

And I don't mean the fact that a spider crawled up Momiji's leg and he did not freak out.

"So you want her to keep her comments to herself just because she says stuff that you don't like?" Hatsuharu said. I looked over at him, surprised. We all did other than Momiji.

He looked angry, hell, he sounded angry. His voice was darker and rougher than usual, just like his eyes. His eyes were normal a pretty soft grey color, but now they were dark and turbulent, bordering on the color black.

"Hatsuharu-kun," I started, but was cut off.

"Stuff it Haru, you're no better. You say that kind of shit left and right, but she's a girl," orange hair said, gesturing towards me. I sat there uncomfortably, trying not to look as uncomfortable as I felt.

"You're just pissy because now you're not the only one with orange hair," Hatsuharu said, smirking.

"What'd you say brat?" orange hair snapped. Hatsuharu's smirk grew wider.

"You heard me Kyo, you're jealous because someone else has the same hair color only hers actually looks good," he said. I blinked. Did he just compliment me?

"Why you little punk!" Orange haired started to reach towards Hatsuharu, when a hand came down on Hatsuharu's head. I blinked twice together now, before connecting the hand to a calm looking Yuki.

"Ah, Yuki-kun," Tohru said, hands up ready to help. My eyes stayed on Hatsuharu, to make sure he was okay, but when he looked up, he acted like nothing was wrong, like nothing had just happened. His eyes were even back to their normal color.

"What just happened?"

"You flipped out again Haru, Yuki calmed you down again!" Momiji said as if that explained it all. Which it did… kind of… sort of… no, not at all really.

"Ah, I see, it's like that," Hatsuharu said, looking towards Yuki. He then stood and bowed towards the other Sohma. "Thank you."

"Just sit down and eat Haru," Yuki said, going back to his meal.

I looked around to the others, Tohru seemed to have calmed down a bit, but everyone else seemed to not care that Hatsuharu had just flipped personalities. Well, Kyo seemed a bit pissed but it was relatively uncaring. But since I really didn't want to appear to be nosy or anything, I didn't ask what just happened. Though I really wanted to.

I think my being paired up with these two for project partners might just drive me into an early stress induced grave…

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><p><strong>Author's Corner<strong>

**Alright this one was shorter than the last, but longer than the first two.**

**Last chapter until I write more.**

**They probably won't be in bulk unless my mother grounds me again...**

**I only threw a shoe at her face...**

**(I'm not a morning person, and what else could I do when she keeps banging on my door like she's gonna break it down)**

**Okay, I'll see ya'll later after I write more.**

**Sincerely,**

**RHD  
><strong>


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